The bottom line: Dutch law enforcement identified and disabled a botnet infrastructure comprising 200 servers and 17 million compromised devices.
The Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and police have shut down a botnet with 200 infrastructure servers and 17 million infected devices. The operation demonstrates the scale of organized botnet activities in Europe.
The National Cyber Security Centre of the Netherlands and Dutch police have dismantled a large-scale botnet. The infrastructure encompassed 200 servers and infected a total of 17 million devices. This action neutralized a significant distribution infrastructure for malware and cyber attacks.
For CISOs, this case is relevant because it demonstrates the scale at which botnet operations are conducted in Europe. The infiltration of 17 million devices indicates substantial penetration of private networks, enterprise systems, and IoT infrastructures. Such networks are typically used for Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, spam distribution, cryptomining, or as a foundation for targeted intrusion campaigns.
The successful operation by Dutch authorities demonstrates that European law enforcement and cyber defense institutions are capable of identifying and disabling larger infrastructures. For organizations, this case underscores the necessity of securing devices against botnet infections: regular patching, network segmentation, endpoint detection, and anomaly monitoring are fundamental to avoiding becoming part of such infrastructures.
Source: www.heise.de · Published June 1, 2026
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